victoly

Yeah, probably on both counts. Give it some time, both in terms of bioload/feeding and letting the skimmer break in. Patience is the worst part of the hobby.

Also, if there's not enough skimmate material that may be another factor. Is the tank new ? How is it stocked if not? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A general rule is to set it a little on the low side. Some skimmers take a while (few days) to break in before the start producing skimmate. Make sure you follow the manual, they all work a little differently. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

let the bidding war begin.

Seems like the mandaran might also be at risk.

It's going right here:

emerald crabs are too new wave and untested

I admire that dude every time I go in there. I don't have anything to offer in terms of experience, but they definitely catch my eye. Good luck.

The analogy isn't that you're buying a new car, it's that you already have a car, and are determining whether you should buy a new car with better gas mileage. And trust me, we're on the same page, I have LEDs and unless some amazing new technology comes, I won't be switching anytime soon. It's just that sometimes it's easier to use what you've already got.

I'm paranoid about introducing nuisance algae to my tank. Part of it has to do with the method that you're receiving the coral (fresh frags are not as likely to have algae), and the size of the piece (larger/older colonies tend to have more algae on whatever they're attached to IMO. I think it's part of a broader subject, improving LFS coral husbandry. It seems as though presentation is a low priority in their sale tanks. In terms of a moving as many units as possible and from a business perspective I totally get this. However, I think that I would be much more motivated if they had a shallow, large, bare bottom tank where everything was racked on egg crate to reduce nuisance algae and more thoroughly evaluate a piece on it's own merits instead of the tank at large. A good example of this is how Vivid does their sale tanks (check youtube). So to all the sponsors who I can only assume read every post on the forum and take their advice, do that and I'll probably buy more coral from you instead of hobbyists who have a stronger focus on giving out nuisance free livestock.

I addressed this in my response. It's probably more of a convenience thing than a long term cost benefit analysis. Alternately, maybe the initial cash hasn't been approved by the bean counter to spend on LEDs. Try telling your wife that you want to spend half a grand on lights when you already have lights. It's gonna take a purse and a massage or something to get that one green lighted.

yeah, I've ebayed mine. Doing pretty well, my 32 gig went for like $240, the 16 gig is up currently. Ebay is the way to go IMO.

So I'm going to make a case as to why I think this is not the best idea for a marine tank. You can achieve the same thing using much safer and cheaper methods. Most people with overflows use filter socks right off of their sump intake. The reason for that is that they are very easy to change out and clean. 2 filter socks is going to be much cheaper than building that tower, and has an exceptionally small chance of failure. I can think of numerous failure points in that tower which could lead to a huge mess. These socks are going to take up much less space and provide sufficient mechanical filtration. As for the biological component, you are not going to need the bioballs in your system. The live rock, substrate and DSB (if you choose that method) will provide ample biological filtration. This trickle filter also has a huge space premium both vertically and horizontally in the sump. You have to move the tower out of the sump to clean the bottom filters, which is a pain. If you intend to run a protein skimmer or any other in-sump device, most of the space will be consumed by this filter. Additionally, having a non-sealed drip filter like that is going to give you salt creep all over the inside of your stand. If it were me, I'd just go with a simple sump that you can fill as you choose.

So to continue, explain the tray system that you're thinking about? Let me preface it by saying that superficially, I think you'll be able to achieve your goals without it, but you might convince me otherwise.

and he's out. down to just the purple firefish and the clown pair. After another escape from the breeder net, I lucked out and caught him in a hand net. Currently everything is going along swimmingly. thanks much to etannert for her fish suggestion, it was the correct one.

I don't know if you have a build thread setup already, and if you do I can continue this there, but I'll just drop one thing: You may be working against yourself by having a wet/dry component with bioballs. If you intend to have a DSB and LR/LS in the display tank, you should have ample biological filtration. Bioballs are fine at converting NH3->NO4->NO3, but if you don't stay on top of cleaning out the bioballs (removing them and rinsing out detritus with RO or NSW), in addition to having good mechanical filtration prior to where they enter the bioballs, they have a tendency to have longterm nitrate creep. At best they are a redundancy to your system, at worst they are a nitrate problem. Ultimately this kind of all hinges on what you intend to keep, so if you have a build thread, point me there and we can chat in a more appropriate place.

Well it's not. And I do. And they don't....So....

dadgumit mike, did you purposefully put the meeting at 2 pm so that dutiful longhorns watching the end of the TX/OU game would not be able to attend? Game time starts at 11 am, so it's doubtful that the game will be over prior to 2 pm. I'd still like to attend, but if I do I'll be late.

I'm a tentative yes at this point. I'll confirm with management.

I wonder if the ULNS mechanism and the temperature mechanism are the same?

That's a really interesting read with how it pertains to reefkeeping. They made the observation that right before bleaching that "dazzling colors" were displayed, something that SPS keepers shoot for. I guess it's a bit different in that they used high temperatures to induce the stress instead of ULNS, but it seems that there might be some correlation. I'm off to make a "temperature reactor" to get my SPS to color up

went, was not disappointed.

rox is amongst the best, but I still do it.